


Found You Somewhere on the Open Road

by theredhood



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Family Bonding, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-15 07:45:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18494500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theredhood/pseuds/theredhood
Summary: Prompt: Jason bonding with his familyJason + his family checking up on him after the events of Heroes In Crisis #1Jason's used to having spent a lot of time alone, but after being kicked out of Gotham he found himself more alone than ever. No Roy, no Bruce, no family. But what if L*bdell wasn't a shitty writer and Jason's family actually cared about him and checked up on him after the death of his best friend?





	1. My Little Sinking Ship

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like DC missed a huge opportunity with Damian and Jason. Jason spent a lot of time with the League growing up and Talia practically became his mother so... Jason & Damian annoying brotherly friendship for the win

Jason wants to say he’s surprised that Damian found him but he knows better than to doubt him. What really gets to him is that Damian tracked him down to a shitty diner in Tennessee on his own accords just to check up on him. Either way, when the youngest Robin slides into the booth seat across from him, it’s decidedly the happiest Jason’s felt since Roy left. 

They don’t talk right away, Jason just makes his way through his burger while Damian messes with one of the holo-programs on his gauntlet. Damian speaks briefly to ask the waitress for a coffee and a bowl of ice cream, and Jason can’t help but snort at him. It’s easy to forget sometimes just how young Damian really is until he does something a kid his age would. Jason wonders how he could ever forget when the waitress sets down Damian’s sundae in front of him and his eyes widen as he gets ready to dig in. Jason takes his opportunity then to ask why Damian’s so far from Gotham. 

“Does your father know where you are?”

“He doesn’t have to always know where I am,” Damian huffs, “I’m not an idiot, Todd.” He follows his statement up with a few angry spoonfuls of ice cream before he decides he has more to say. “Nobody knows where _you_  are. Except for me.”

“Aww, you could’ve just told me you missed me, baby bird.”

Damian flings a little ice cream at Jason and in retaliation Jason dips his fingers in his glass of water and flicks it at him. It’s not enough to be anything more than annoying but Jason can’t help but laugh as Damian bristles as a cat would. “I didn’t _miss_  you, I was the only one who knew how to find you, so I came to talk to you,” he practically hisses but there’s no heat behind the superficial layer of Damian’s anger. He rubs a hand down his face to collect the water, reaches over the table, and wipes it on Jason’s jacket. “What do you know about Sanctuary?”

Jason’s about to point out that the only reason Damian knows how to find him is because none of the other bats were probably looking for him, but his brain malfunctions halfway through at the mention of Sanctuary. Damian’s always serious, he rarely lets himself be anything but, except his tone now is almost suffocating with how direct he is with it. “I-” Jason begins, unsure what kind of answer his brother’s looking for. He fiddles with the silver band on his finger for a few seconds before answering, “it’s the hero rehabilitation center. Roy wouldn’t tell me where, exactly, I just know it’s in the Midwest.” Damian’s looking at him hard and Jason can sense he wants to say something he doesn’t think Jason will like. “If you’re trying to get me to go,” Jason says first,  not wanting to give Damian the option to suggest it first. He tries not to sound angry but he can feel the bitterness building up when he continues, “I’m not gonna fucking go, even if you’re the one extending the invitation. I already said no to Roy, I don’t wanna fucking go somewhere where half the people don’t even fucking-”

Damian slamming both his fists on the table as he stands up cuts Jason off and he leans over the table to get in Jason’s face, “there’s nobody at Sanctuary, Jason.” He’s breathing heavily as he looks down at Jason but Jason can’t seem to figure out how to breathe at all. They both clam up after that, taking a few moments to calm down. When Damian thinks Jason’s ready he explains further, voice flat, “something happened a week ago and all of the remaining heroes were moved out.” There’s a pause, and Jason nods, trying to signal that he’s still following. “Father wanted to tell you himself but he’s busy trying to figure out who’s responsible for the massacre.”

Jason can feel himself becoming a little numb at that, at the idea of multiple heroes dying when they’re at their lowest point and trying to heal. His heart stops altogether when his brain finally catches up and all he can think about is _where’s Roy Harper_. Damian picks up on the change immediately thanks to his training and all the time he and Jason spent together with the League making it easy for him to read Jason. Instead of talking, he flips open the panel in his gauntlet and pulls up a hologram of the roster of heroes at Sanctuary. He slips it off his wrist and hands it over to Jason so he can scroll through. When Jason does, he’s struck with the reminder that Damian’s a child again when he realizes the gauntlet is maybe a third of the size of his own. His brain is halfway through processing the thought that Damian could’ve been hurt if he was there before his brain aborts it entirely and he returns his focus to the holo-projection. 

He doesn’t really know the first section of heroes who pop up, some are younger no-names and some are just heroes he’s never met. It’s daunting to see that out of everyone on the roster, almost all are marked dead or in critical condition. The feeling worsens when he sees his childhood friend Eddie Bloomberg amongst the casualties and that alone makes him wanna stop. Except he can’t, not until Jason finds what he’s looking for. He knows he’s not gonna like the answer he finds especially when Damian tries to sneakily slide into his side of the booth to sit next to him. As he scrolls further, he’s aware of Damian closing in on his side distantly but his heart in his throat takes up too much of Jason’s attention. His heart stops dead the second he sees the photo of Roy that’s X’d out and ‘deceased’ printed under it.

Jason doesn’t remember what happens right after, just that the next thing he knows he’s leaning against the brick outside the diner, Damian kneeling in front of him. Jason knows death isn’t a rarity for vigilantes, it’s as common as getting mugged in Gotham, but that doesn’t stop him from panicking. _Roy’s gone_. Who’s to say this is one of the times they get brought back? The universe exceeded its limit of being nice to Jason when it brought Roy back into his life when he got kicked out of Gotham, there’s no way it’ll bring Roy back to him _again_. Jason can feel the anxiety rising in the pit of his stomach and he can feel the heat behind his eyes as they start to burn. He’s no stranger to panic attacks but there’s something about the build-up of this one that feels like seeing a huge raincloud roll in over the horizon. He knows it’s gonna be a downpour but he knows he can’t stop it, that he’s just gonna be a bystander to the flooding. 

His throat’s closing around what little breaths he can take but he tries to focus on the heat of Damian’s little arm pressed against his. If Jason focuses hard enough on Damian next to him, he can distract himself just enough to pull himself out. It’s easier to calm down when he realizes Damian is sitting so close because he remembers that’s how Talia used to help Jason through the panic attacks when they were living with the League. That Damian cared enough to remember how to help Jason or that he even wants to help him brings him down just enough that his lungs remember how to work.

When Jason is present enough, Damian pulls out his phone from an inner pocket of his uniform and opens up an album on his phone. He scoots in a little closer and holds the phone between him and Jason and on the screen is a photo of Titus sleeping at the foot of Damian’s bed. “I wish I could bring him along on Titans missions.” He scrolls through the album and comments on why he took them, gives them both something to focus on rather than the Sanctuary scenario. “I took this one because Alfred was making chirping noises,” Damian says when a photo of the cat standing in the windowsill pops up. He scrolls past a photo of Titus, Batcow, a few more of Titus, and then another of Ace. It’s a nice photo of Ace but Jason can’t help but feel mildly annoyed when he remembers the last time he saw the dog he had tried to eat Jason’s jacket. When Damian switches to the next photo he feels vindicated when it’s a photo of Ace sleeping on his jacket. 

By the time they go through the whole album, Jason’s calmed down almost entirely. When they both stand and stretch, Jason starts to feel weird again. He wants to thank Damian for being the one to tell him, for coming to talk to him so soon after the incident, to thank him for helping him after but… he doesn’t know how to say all that. Instead, he pulls Damian in by the shoulders, tucks his brother’s head into him and ruffles his hair. Damian seems to get it from the way he doesn’t immediately bite Jason and if he presses into Jason ever so slightly, nobody else needs to know but them. 

“Be good, okay?” Jason asks when they pull apart even though he knows Damian is too pragmatic to just behave like Bruce and anyone else he accompanies will want him to. Damian snorts and punches him hard in the side. Jason rolls his eyes and shoves him along, “you better get home before Bruce comes to beat the shit out of me again for letting you out past your bedtime.”

Damian makes a face at him for that, flips him the bird, and points a button at the sky. There’s a quiet beeping noise and a rumbling as a smaller version of the Batwing uncloaks itself from where it’s hovering in the sky. Damian gives him a smug smile and grapples into the aircraft and Jason can’t help but be jealous of him for a second. There’s no way Bruce would’ve let him use an aircraft and Jason wouldn’t have been brave enough to _steal_  one to take halfway across the States. The jealousy fades into something softer as he watches Damian take off and head back to New Jersey. He knows Damian was only so tolerating today because of the conversation they had but Jason also knows that even if Damian had spent the entire evening beating on him it would’ve been okay because Damian at least cared enough to tell him in person.


	2. Not Quite Built to Hold Such Weight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok this one's a bit shorter but it's mainly bc Kate and Jason don't really have much of a relationship in Rebirth which sucks bc they're peak gay/lesbian solidarity
> 
> this one's based off rhato #29

Jason doesn’t hear from another Bat for almost two weeks Damian found him. He doesn’t expect to, he’s in the middle of nowhere following the ghost of a trail that Roy gave him almost two months ago. So it’s definitely a surprise when he ends up hunched over a Solomon Grundy robot double with a pitchfork in his back. “You’re a long way from Gotham.”

The pitchfork pulls away and is replaced by Batwoman extending a gloved hand, “so are you, Hood.” She tugs him up hard and doesn’t give him the chance to recuperate before she turns and chucks the pitchfork at another clone copy that’s charging from behind Jason.  “By the way,” Kate starts to say as takes a few steps back to wind up. Getting the picture, Jason gets on one knee and Kate takes a running head start. When she gets closer, she uses Jason as a jumping point and launches herself right at the not-quite-Grundy, “was buzzing your hair a gay thing or a breakdown thing?”

Three more clones follow up after the one Kate just attacked and Jason ducks, rips out the chain whip he has and hooks it around the closest one’s feet. “You’ve been there,” he calls back, “you should know it’s a mixture of both.” The Monday, as Kate had called them, is too heavy so even with the strength enhancements the Lazarus Pit gave him so it just stumbles forward and Jason has to leap out of the way to avoid it. He watches as Kate leaps onto its back from the one she just incapacitated and uses one of her batarangs to rip its back from neck to mid-back, wires spilling out as a result. One of the two forgotten Mondays takes his chance, picks Jason up while he’s distracted, and throws him. It takes Jason a few seconds to collect his bearings and he almost forgets to tuck and roll before he hits the ground. He lands hard but he shakes it off and makes a dash for his motorcycle. He gets her started quickly and revs the engine, indulging in the sound for a second. He makes a quick detour to pull another pitchfork out of the ground and heads back to Kate. 

When Jason gets closer, a Monday’s holding Kate off the ground. He speeds up and launches himself off his motorcycle, prays a little that it doesn’t get scratched, and slams the pitchfork through its head. He and Kate both go down hard when the Grundy falls back and Jason knows that one’s gonna leave a bruise. The other Monday seems to have fucked off, leaving Jason and Kate breathing heavily in the open field. Kate catches her breath first and rests a hand on Jason’s shoulder while he’s still kinda hunched over. “I know we don’t know each other that well but for what it’s worth, I’m sorry about your loss. I didn’t know Roy but I know you two were good for each other.” 

Jason avoids her eyes, “he was _too_  good, he deserved better than a boyfriend like me.”

“That’s just the good old fashioned bat-guilt talking,” Kate says, her grip on Jason softening. She pats his shoulder and takes a step back, giving him some space, “I already know you’re gonna shut this down but if you ever need to talk, just give me a ring, okay.” Jason opens his mouth to do exactly as she said and turn her down but she cuts him, “I know what it’s like to lose somebody, Jason. I also know it’s way worse when you lose somebody you love right after they come back into your life. So do yourself a favor and don’t burn this bridge.” 

He nods instead of answering, knows he _should_  probably talk about it but talking things out was never really his forte. It wasn’t really Kate’s either, though, so if she’s willing to extend the offer maybe he can allow himself to try. Cutting the conversation short before he overthinks it, Jason pulls his motorcycle off the ground and starts it up. “You coming?” he calls out to her over the engine, “or am I kicking this bitch in the teeth by myself?

\---

They do end up talking, right after they take down the last couple of Mondays and their base in Appleton, although probably not in the way Kate expected. Or maybe she did, Batman wasn’t the only detective in the family. They find a bar about an hour South and decide to see how much they can drink with the $60 Jason has on him. 

They’re not drunk, both have way too high of a tolerance to be anything but a little over tipsy by this point but they’re too far from any real harm to not let themselves have their guard down for a little while.

“So what you’re telling me,” Jason snorts, “is that right after I got kicked out of Gotham Bruce picked a fight with you too? And you fucking won?” He raises his shot in the air and smiles broadly at her before tipping his head back and sucking it down. “That must’ve been a rough couple of weeks for him, what with him getting left at the rooftop altar then getting knocked down a peg like that.”

“The best part was the bat symbol on his suit got torn, he looked miserable. Serves him right for thinking he has the right to take being Batwoman away from me.”

“You kicked his ass and he still had the nerve to act like he could make you stop?” Jason snorts at that and motions at the bartender for another shot. “It’s one thing to kick the shit out of me and _then_  kick me out of Gotham but to fucking lose to someone who’s every bit your equal and act like you can boss them around?  He didn’t invent being a furry, anyone can wear the fucking bat, it’s like a weird family crest.”

Kate laughs at that, a genuine one, too. In turn, it makes Jason feel warm and he can’t help but smile. It’s been a while since he’s felt anything but upset or empty and even longer since he’s had a good time with somebody else. When the bartender comes back with four more shots, Jason downs his two in record time and decides that maybe the warmth he’s feeling is from the whiskey, instead. “Modern vigilantism is so fucking stupid if you think about it,” Kate adds in. She’s leaning her left elbow on the bar top and just holding the shot in the other as she laughs and continues, “you ever think about how we just, wear tight suits that are stupidly themed and go out and punch other people who are also wearing equally stupid and tight costumes?” She takes her time downing the first shot but wastes no time on the second. Jason mimics her position but leans both his forearms on the table and brings his hands together. 

Absentmindedly, Jason twirls the silver band he’s wearing. It’s become a nervous habit, playing with the ring. Jason’s constantly worried about losing it now that Roy’s gone, he doesn’t think he could handle losing it after everything that’s happened. Kate picks up on the movement, though, and reaches over to rest one of her hands on top of both of Jason’s. “Oh, Jason,” she says, voice soft, “tell me that’s not what I think it is.”

He doesn’t want to admit it, that he and Roy were… well, it was complicated. Jason had all but said _marry me_  when he’d given Roy the other ring. At first, it had just been a promise to Roy that he’d be there, that Jason wouldn’t leave him again. Except, the night before he planned to give it to him, Roy had held him close and told him he was scared. Jason hadn’t been around the first time Roy went to rehab, wasn’t there to see all of Roy’s friends slowly distance themselves from him until eventually when Roy got out he had nobody to call. So Jason told him he wasn’t going to leave, that he never wanted to be apart from Roy again. The promise to do his best for Roy turned into the promise to love him forever. 

At first, the idea scared Jason. Roy coming back to him was the only thing that had gone right for Jason since Bizarro and Artemis left but the ugly part of him was worried he’d just drag Roy down with him. Then Roy had kissed him and every fiber of Jason told him that’s what they should be doing the rest of their lives. He didn’t really think the ‘death do us part’ segment would come before he even got married.

“You gonna make fun of me for getting engaged after only a few months being back together?”

Kate shakes her head and a small smile breaks through, “Nah, I’ve been there, it’d be unfair for me to rag on you.” She brings her stool closer to his as not so sneakily but Jason doesn’t even think to stop her. “None of us are allowed to get married, huh. I had to break things off with Maggie so she could keep her daughter, Selina just up and disappears, and now you.” She rubs a hand down her face and sighs heavily, “is Gotham bad luck or is it the kevlar and spandex that’s doing us wrong?” Jason isn’t quite sure how to respond to that, so he doesn’t and just waves the bartender so he can close the tab. “Smart idea,” Kate muses, then she waves a hand and points to the door behind them with her thumb, “Renee said she’d be here soon almost twenty minutes ago so we should be a little more presentable.”

“We?”

Kate pats his hand again before standing up and walking away. “Of course, _us_. I assume you don’t want to head back to Gotham just yet but we can take you anywhere you need to go.” She turns back to the door and takes a few steps through, “it’s easy to get lost when you’re on your own, so a little help is crucial.” As the door closes behind her, Jason can just barely hear her say, “that’s what family’s for.”


End file.
